Tattoos on This Town
by WhenSherlockWentToNightVale
Summary: Alternate Universe. Human AU. A.J. feels like she'll never find her soul mate, until one day he walks through a door five feet away from her. GabrielxOC, Destiel, Samifer. This work is based before ep. 9x18 Meta Fiction.
1. Chapter 1

**When two soul mates meet, they become bound to one another. It's not like marriage. When two people are bound, they're bound for life. A two day ritual takes place wherein the two people swap stories, secrets, and in some cases, blood. This is all done in secret. No one other than the two people can know the things that are said. **

**Some people are so in love when they meet that they decided to swap blood. When this happens all living family of the two soul mates must attend. A preacher and the soul mates stand at an alter. The preacher cuts both of the people's hands and holds them together in his hands. This is the first part of the ritual. From there the second part of the ritual starts. The soul mates hide away for two days and spend all of that time simply talking to each other. **

**At the end of the two days everybody comes back together for the third part of the binding process. The preacher repeats the blood binding process and the two soul mates are bound.**


	2. Soul Mates (Binding)

She sat in the cafe window and stared out at the street. Her hair sat lightly on her shoulders. She had dyed it platinum and shaved half of it off so it hung on the right side of her roots of her hair were dyed a royal blue color.

Her T-shirt read, "If you can read this, back off!" in big white letters on black fabric. The skinny jeans she was wearing had tears up and down the front of them. They were dusted with gold paint. Her high tops were a gray color with white soles.

The plugs in her ears that day were black and white. She wore a gold chain around her neck with the word _RELENT _on it.

This ensemble perfectly showed off her tattoos. Everyone had them, so she wasn't embarrassed. Everyone was born with these tattoos. Everybody's tattoos were unique, except one other person's. If two people had the exact same tattoos, they were soul mates. It didn't matter if the age gap was two years or 20. Gender and race didn't matter either.

The girl's name was A.J. She hadn't found her soul mate yet. To her it seemed like everybody else had. Her older brother, James, found his soul mate when he was 17. A.J. was already 26. Even her best friend, Castiel, had found his soul mate. Cas' soul mate's name was Dean. They've been bound for one year.

A.J. came to see Dean and Cas become bound. She sat with Castiel's family and met most of his brothers and sisters. She remembered Castiel's older sister, Anna, very vividly. A.J. remembered the tattoos that covered Anna's arms. Black lines ran up her arms and met with the ones on her neck. Anna had a small dove on her hand between her thumb and fore finger. The other hand had blue vines growing around her fingers that looked like they grew out of the veins of her wrist.

A.J. also remembered one other person very well. After the binding, Cas told her that it was his older brother named Lucifer. What made A.J. remember him so well was the tattoo that spread across his face. It looked like he had been hit in the side of the face with a water balloon filled with paint. The tattoo streaked his face with a red color that could have easily been mistaken for blood. A.J. had done her best to avoid him. It wasn't just the tattoo that made him look so menacing. It was the fact that Anna told her that Lucifer found his soul mate and became bound to them. Three months after the binding Lucifer's soul mate was found beaten to death in their bedroom.

The police let Lucifer walk on the alibi that he was drunk at a bar and that there were witnesses that could prove this. Ever since then no one in the family fully trusted Lucifer.

A.J. held her iced lemonade in her hands, trying to cool down. It was late July and the hot weather wasn't letting up anytime soon. She watched the people pass by on the sidewalk, cars on the street. She looked down at her hands that were now sitting in her lap.

A.J. had a dusty pink rose on the back of her left hand and a dark blue and black rose on the back of her right hand. The pink rose grew vines that cascaded down her fingers, and were a light green color. The rose on her right hand had black vines with deep red colored thorns on them.

The door to the cafe opened and the small bell rang. A.J. looked to her left and almost fell out of her chair. She saw a man standing there who had golden brown hair and a smirk on his lips. Across his chest and collar bone A.J. could see a tattoo that read _BREAK THE CHAINS _in a purple ombre coloring and an old English font_. _She saw the gold tips of eagle wings that stuck out from under his green and white striped wife beater.

A.J. reached up and touched her collar bone. She had the same tattoo. That's how she knew they were eagle wings.

As the man walked to the counter A.J. got a better look at his arms. On the shoulder that A.J. could see was a bone colored skull. The tattoos underneath it looked like lines of orange blood running down his arms to water a silver tree on the outside of his wrist. Above and surrounding the tree was a fading purple and pink sunset. The sky started just before the orange blood could touch it, and ended where his wrist met his hand. A.J.'s eyes flew to look at her left arm and saw the same thing.

When the man walked back from the counter A.J. saw that he had the same tattoos on the other arm. The only difference was that the skull was a aqua marine color and the blood was a bright red. The tree was a gold color and the sky surrounding it was dark purple and blue, and covered in stars. Just like A.J's.

He even had the same blue and black rose, vines, and thorns as A.J.

She watched him go and sit down at a table on the other side of the room. A.J. could just make out the tattoos that covered his ankles. On his right ankle was black and purple colored barbed wire. Where every point stuck into his skin, a small drop of red blood was tattooed on. His left ankle had maroon dusted barbed wire on it. There was no blood on that ankle.

Not wanting to scare the man off, A.J. went back to looking out the window. In her peripheral vision, A.J. watched the door.

When she saw the man leave she got up and followed him. A.J. followed him down the street until he turned the corner and A.J. lost sight of him. She turned into the alley she thought she had seen him walk into.

The blonde haired girl made her way to a turn at the back of the alley. As soon as she rounded the corner someone grabbed her from behind, holding her mouth so no sound could escape. A.J. was pushed face first into the side of the building, and then violently whipped around so she was able to see the face of her attacker.


	3. Explanations (More Than One)

**Even though it was only 7:30 in the afternoon, the sun was setting and it was getting darker by the minute. **

**A.J. could just see the outline of the person who attacked her in the shadow of the alley. The light from the street melted in between the buildings and bled through the attacker's hair. A.J. could see that it was a man with gold/brown hair. Now that he had moved his hand, A.J. let out a small gasp. It was the man from the cafe.**

**"****Why are you following me?" he asked with an edge to his voice that made A.J. go cold. **

**"****I-your tattoos," was all she could stutter out. **

**"****What about 'em?"**

**"****They're like mine. Exactly like mine. Well, from what I can see, they're the same."**

**The man loosened his grip on A.J. and took a step back. "Don't lie to me," he spat at A.J.**

**"****I'm not! I'm not. I swear, I can prove it. Look." A.J. held out her hands for him to inspect. He took her hands in his and turned them over, examining them. **

**"****They look similar, not exact. What about your arms?" He pulled A.J.'s arms closer to him. "Oh... Wow. They are the same."**

**"****Yeah, I know. I saw you earlier in the cafe," A.J. said, holding out a hand. "I'm A.J. Jenkins."**

**The man looked at her wearily. "I'm Gabriel. Novak. What does A.J. stand for?"**

**"****Amanda Jane."**

**"****Oh."**

**They stood there in silence for a few awkward seconds until Gabriel spoke up. "So...I guess we should, like, talk or something? We're soul mates, right?"**

**"****I guess so," A.J. said with a note of disappointment in her voice.**

**Gabriel noticed this. "What? What's wrong?"**

**"****Nothing. It's just that I thought meeting my soul mate would be a little more exciting. Don't you think this," A.J. gestured around them, "Is a little unceremonious?" **

**"****Well I did attack you...," Gabriel said as he came to the realization of what he had done. "Which I'm sorry about! I didn't know you were my soul mate. Honest."**

**A.J. couldn't help but laugh at how cute he looked. "It's fine. I didn't get hurt and we found each other. That's all that matters, right?"**

**"****Yeah," Gabriel replied with a smile. **

* * *

**"****Seriously!?" A.J. asked with a surprised smile.**

**"****Yep." Gabriel smiled back.**

**"****I didn't even see you there!" A.J. lauged.**

**"****I was the one who got kicked out for getting drunk and stripping..." Gabriel had a blush growing on his cheeks.**

**"****That was you?" A.J. couldn't believe what she was hearing. "That was hilarious. Cas looked like he had seen a ghost when you ran up on stage, drunk, and half naked." A.J. was openly laughing now.**

**After they had started talking, A.J. brought up the subject of Cas and his binding ceremony. After telling stories from the two days, Gabriel spoke up and introduced himself as Cas' older brother. The reason A.J. didn't remember him was because on the first day of the blood binding ceremony he got drunk and had to be escorted out, and, due to his family's concern about him ruining the ceremony, wasn't allowed back in.**

**"****So what did you do for the rest of the two days then?"**

**"****I pretty much just hung out with Luci. He wasn't totally into the whole 'Eternal love and forgiveness' thing. I mean, I don't blame the guy. If I was him, I wouldn't want anything to do with my baby bro's binding ceremony either."**

**"****Yeah," A.J. said with a frown. "I guess I understand. About him not wanting to be at the binding ceremony and all, but I could never even ****_begin_****to imagine what he went through, losing his soul mate and all."**

**"****It was pretty hard on all of us, truthfully," Gabriel said. A.J. could tell that this was a sensitive topic for him, but she was curious as to why Gabriel cared so much about Lucifer's soul mate.**

**"****It impacted him the most though," A.J. said. She saw Gabriel flinch under her words. "...Right?"**

**"****Um, yeah. He took it really hard. Wouldn't talk to any of us for a while after." **

**"****What was his soul mate's name?" A.J. prodded Gabriel.**

**"****Uh, his name was, um... Sam," Gabriel sounded as if the words caused him physical pain to say out loud.**


	4. Dreams (Shattered)

**Lucifer sat up in bed. His hair was damp with a cold sweat and his sheets were tangled around his legs. His breath came out quick, labored. Lucifer had been dreaming about Sam again. It always felt so real, but this time felt different, like Lucifer could feel the pain Sam had felt.**

**Lucifer had dreamt that he was in the room with Sam when he was killed. He saw Sam curled up next to the bed with one hand cupped over his shoulder, putting pressure on a bullet wound. The man with the gun had his back to Lucifer, but Lucifer had a sense of familiarity towards the man. He felt like if he saw the man on the street he would walk over and strike up a conversation. Lucifer knew the man, he just didn't know ****_who_****he was.**

**In the dream, the attacker had a gun pointed at Sam's head. Lucifer couldn't move, couldn't scream out for Sam. He couldn't do anything. He felt so useless. Sam let out a scream as a bullet ripped through his stomach. The gun clicked again, but nothing came out. The assailant swore under his breath. He got down on his knees, eye level with Sam. He began to speak to Sam in low whispers and grunts. Every few seconds Sam would nod his head. The other man stood up and stuck out his hand. Sam took it. As he was pulled up by his good hand, Sam let out a breathy moan. The wound in his stomach pulled and blood gushed out. He pulled away from the attacker and put that hand over the wound.**

**Then everything went wrong. The man with the gun hit Sam hard in the face. Lucifer found his voice. He yelled out for Sam, pushed past the other man. The blood on the floor stained Lucifer's pant legs as he kneeled to hold Sam's face in his hands. But he never made it that far. Before Lucifer could get to Sam, he woke up, covered in sweat, with his heart broken, again. It was a vicious cycle that Lucifer was a part of. Fall asleep, dream about Sam, wake up numb.**

**But this time something felt different. Lucifer felt the bullet enter his body when the one in the dream had pierced Sam. As Lucifer sat in bed he checked himself over, not knowing what he was looking for. He dragged one hand over his stomach and brought it close to his face. There was nothing on it. Lucifer fell back in bed and closed his eyes, trying not to think about Sam. The street light bled through the window and fell across the space on the bed that Sam used to occupy.**

* * *

**"****Yeah, well tough. You're expected to at least ****_show up._****You don't have to stay for the whole time, just the first ceremony."**

**There was a pause.**

**"****Fine," Lucifer growled out. **

**"****Good," the voice on the other end of the phone said, then hung up.**

**"****Damn it," Lucifer said under his breath. He threw the phone on the bed and sat down on the other end. His head hung in his hands as he stared at the ground. The person on the phone was his mother and she had called him to tell him about Castiel's binding ceremony. Lucifer wanted nothing to do with the affair, but due to rules, he was required to attend one of the ceremonies. He was less than thrilled about it.**

**For the past year Lucifer had done nothing but sulk. Ever since Sam died he had barely taken care of himself. But thank God for Gabriel. Without him, Lucifer probably wouldn't have eaten, slept, or even showered. Gabriel was with him nearly every second of the day making sure he did what he had to.**

**Now Gabriel was also the reason he was going to Cas' binding ceremony. Once Gabriel was convinced that Lucifer could take care of himself on his own, he left, gave him space. Gabriel knew Lucifer needed it. After that, the two stopped talking. Secretly Lucifer was glad his mother had told him about the ceremony. If she hadn't, he may have never seen Gabriel again.**


End file.
